Lebanon bans screening of documentary on Iran vote

BEIRUT, (AFP) — Lebanon has banned a screening of Iranian documentary “Red, White and the Green,”
which deals with violence in the weeks before the 2009 presidential election, an organiser announced Sunday.
“Lebanese censorship authorities on Friday informed us we would have to pull Iranian director Nader Davoodi’s film ‘Red, White and the Green’ from our programme and today we were informed that Davoodi would not be allowed to travel to Lebanon,” said Colette Naufal, director of the Beirut International Film Festival which runs from October 5 to 13.
The 2010 film, which was to be screened as part of the festival’s “Middle East Documentary Film Competition,” focuses on the violent events of the last three weeks leading up to the June 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Lebanese authorities were not immediately available for comment.
The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement, a major ally of Iran, leads the governing coalition.
The news comes four months after the banning of “Green Days” by Iranian film-maker Hana Makhmalbaf, which shows raw footage of security forces cracking down on protests after the disputed election.
Makhamalbaf is the daughter of Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to leading Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of Ahmadinejad’s challengers in the 2009 election who cried fraud when official results gave him victory in the first round.